America’s Growing Retirement-Aged Workforce

We hear it anecdotally all the time: Baby boomers are staying in the workforce longer and delaying retirement. The Wall Street Journal touchedon this recently, and to provide further clarity, we looked at U.S. Census Bureau data inside Analyst to break down the 65-and-older segment of the workforce.

The upshot of our analysis? Retirement-aged workers (or at least what’s traditionally been considered retirement age) are indeed growing as a share of the total U.S. labor force. An estimated 4.7% of jobs are held by workers who are 65 and over, up from 4% in 2001. That amounts to seven million jobs.

Much more on the 65-plus workforce is summarized in the following EMSI infographic.

Data and analysis for this infographic came from Analyst, EMSI’s web-based labor market tool. Follow us on Twitter @desktopecon. Email Josh Wright if you have any questions or comments, or would like to see further data.

Joshua Wright

Reader Interactions

I would have found it much more material to know what percentage of those in various age groups over 65 are working. For example, what percentage of a) males b)females in the 65-69 age group have a c) full time or d) part time job or e) multiple jobs. What percentage of males/females in the 70-74 age group have a full time or half time job.

The offered information in the summary was far less valuable for personal review or anticipation of future decisions.

It would be interesting to know how these older folks of which I am one,
perform in contrast to their younger counter parts and how they feel both physically and emotionally if they are required to continue working to support themselves and or family beyond retirement age.